Facsimile and static presentation processing – Facsimile – Auxiliary signal
Reexamination Certificate
1998-01-07
2001-10-30
Grant, II, Jerome (Department: 2724)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Facsimile
Auxiliary signal
C358S408000, C358S442000, C379S100120
Reexamination Certificate
active
06310699
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a facsimile device that can be connected to a plurality of lines and can transmit image data with TTI (Transmit Terminal Identifier) such as a sender's name,phone number and date/time of transmission to a receiver side.
2. Background Art
Facsimile devices can be functionally improved by being provided with communication ports, line units and the like to their main facsimile unit such that they can be connected to a plurality of lines. In the case of such facsimile devices, communication may be carried out during transmission by simply utilizing lines not in use. Communication may also be carried out by allocating each line to a different receiving side or by using separate lines for transmission and reception such that the processing efficiency of the facsimile communication is enhanced.
Further, such facsimile devices as described above may be provided with a simultaneous broadcasting communication function such that they can transmit the same contents to a plurality of third parties simultaneously through a plurality of lines. This simultaneous broadcasting communication makes the broadcasting process efficient because a plurality of lines are simultaneously used during the process.
In facsimile communication in general, TTI (Transmit Terminal Identifier) information such as the phone number of the used line, the sender's name, the date/time of transmission and the number of transmitted pages is attached to the header of the document data and transmitted so that the TTI is printed on the receiver's side at the top end of each page of the document. The receiving side can then refer to the phone number of the TTI of the received facsimile data when it attempts to make a facsimile transmission back to the sender.
However,when each of a plurality of lines (each line has a different phone number, of course) is allocated to a different receiving side, if the simultaneous broadcasting communication described above is carried out using the plurality of lines simultaneously, there is a possibility that each receiving side receives a “different” phone number of another line (that is, a phone number of another line that is not allocated to the receiver) as the TTl when the TTl is printed out. If this happens, the receiving side is likely to refer to this “different” phone number and use that another line when it transmits facsimile data back to the sender. This may cause a serious confusion for the information control system of the sender side because the receiving side is then using a line that it is not supposed to use.
Similarly, when the facsimile device on the sender side distinguishes the lines used exclusively for transmission from those used exclusively for reception, if facsimile data is received over the lines used exclusively for transmission, due to the confusion described above, the processing efficiency of the facsimile communication as a whole may be significantly lowered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is conceived in order to solve the aforementioned problems, and its object is to propose a facsimile device as below described. In a facsimile communication such as a simultaneous broadcasting communication in which a plurality of lines are used, the facsimile device of the present invention selects a predetermined phone number (such as a phone number of a line to which the facsimile device itself is connected, a phone number selected by an operator, or a phone number of a line used exclusively for reception) as the phone number to be transmitted as the TTl to the receiving side, regardless of which line is used for the transmission to the receiving side. As a result, if each line is pre-allocated to a particular receiving side on the sender side, its information control system is not disturbed. Also, if a simultaneous broadcasting communication is carried out by simultaneously using a plurality of lines, any confusion on the TTI can be avoided. In addition, even when the facsimile device on the sender side uses separate lines (lines dedicated for transmission and those dedicated for reception), a high processing efficiency during the facsimile communication can always be assured.
As a first aspect of the present invention, a facsimile device that is connectable to a plurality of lines includes: means for storing line information that identifies each of a plurality of lines; means for selecting the predetermined line information from the stored line information when image data is transmitted; and means for transmitting the selected line information along with the image data to a receiving side.
As a second aspect of the present invention, the facsimile device includes a main facsimile unit and one or more line-increase units. Each line-increase unit is provided for connecting a line to the main facsimile unit. Both the main facsimile unit and the line-increase units each include line control means, a modem and communication control means.
In the first and second aspects of the present invention, when a facsimile communication is carried out by using either a plurality of lines to which the main facsimile unit can be connected or by using a plurality of lines to which the main facsimile unit and the line-increase units can be connected, a phone number with information identifying the line that is used, for example, a phone number set as the default sending number, a phone number dedicated for reception or a phone number selected by an operator is selected and transmitted with image data to the receiving side.
Therefore, when the reception side makes a facsimile transmission back to the original sender referring to the (TTI) information, regardless of which line was used for the facsimile data transmission from the sender to the receiver, the facsimile data from the receiver side can always be received by the sender over a line which the sender wants to use for reception (such as a line pre-allocated to the receiver or a line dedicated for reception).
As a third aspect of the facsimile device of the present invention, the device further includes means for making a simultaneous broadcasting communication to a plurality of third parties by using some or all of a plurality of lines. The device can thus transmit the same line information along with the image data to each of the receiving devices during a simultaneous broadcasting communication.
In short, according to the facsimile device of the present invention, when it carries out simultaneous broadcasting communication either by using a plurality of lines that is connectable to the main facsimile unit or by using a plurality of lines that is connectable to its main facsimile unit and line-increase units, it can transmit the same phone number along with the data to be transmitted to a plurality of the receiving devices regardless of which and how many lines were used for the simultaneous broadcasting communication.
As a result, it is possible to join the same phone number with the same image data and send that combined data to each receiving side when conducting simultaneous broadcast communication. Due to this, any possible confusion that might occur if the receiver side did not get the proper (predetermined) phone number can be avoided.
Some facsimile devices of the prior art have proposed an arrangement where a plurality of user names and phone numbers are pre-memorized such that one of the names and its corresponding phone number can be selected and used as the TTI. However, all such conventional devices are designed to be connected to only one line and do not mention how they control the TTI when they send data to a plurality of receiver devices simultaneously using a plurality of lines (in the case of a simultaneous broadcasting communication, for example).
The facsimile device of the present invention, conversely, can always send a pre-selected, correct TTI to each receiver regardless of which and how many lines are used. Therefore, the TTI control on the sender side is never disturbed and any confusion on th
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Grant II Jerome
Murata Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha
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